I actually liked Sturm as a character, but it was obvious that he was doomed. I had weird love/hate attitude towards Tas, it's almost as if I could foresee all the horrible characters he would inspire, but he was quite fun in his proper element.

Oh god, he used the MS phrase, cue three weeks of pointless internet squabbling.

Let's just agree that Kvothe is a high powered character for whom little ever seems to truly go wrong in any lasting way. But A) it's really well written (at least Book 1 is, Book 2 was rushed and is less polished as a consequence and everyone, including the author, knows it, which is why we're STILL waiting for Book 3) and B) Everything we know about what's happened before they all show up at the inn is told to us BY Kvothe. Am I suggesting that he is a less than utterly reliable narrator? Oh my yes, especially with certain events in Book 2 (Fellurian).

Anyone who thinks an unreliable narrator somehow makes a book worse clearly hasn't read enough good books with unreliable narrators. Nothing draws me back in and compels me to turn the next page like a narrator who makes me ask myself, "Really? No...wait...really?!"

Oh I agree completely, that wasn't supposed to be a knock on Name of the Wind at all. The point is that Kvothe isn't necessarily as amazing as he tells us he is. Now, unreliable narrators can be tricky when you don't have information that doesn't come from them, because you can't always be certain they ARE unreliable. Worse, I suspect that for the most part, Kvothe believes he's telling the truth. But once you realize just how young and inexperienced and full of himself he was, it becomes easy to believe that he might not be as accurate as he thinks he is. As I said before, this especially applies to his version of what happened with Fellurian.